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Do you have two
steps, or even three, in the Orientation process?

The orientation
process has three stages:

A general orientation

A departmental
orientation, and

A specific
job orientation

They are conducted
by different parties. The General Orientation is usually managed
by either the Training Department or the Human Resources Department,
with the Departmental Orientation by the Department Head or
first Assistant, while the specific Job Orientation can be carried
out by an experienced and trained employee (trained on how to
train). These guidelines are intended for people conducting
the General Orientation:

A general rule of
thumb for having the audience interested in the general orientation
is to

Make them feel
at ease (open circle).

Make sure that
they had enough time to read the employee manual ahead of
orientation time.

Spend a good
portion of the introduction time towards self-introductions,
spiced with open questions.

Get them to
know who Management is: have a big chart in the orientation/training
room which depicts how the organisation is set up, with
photos of the management team next to their title.

Get them acquainted
with the operation: have another large chart in the room
depicting the flow of work and communications regarding
the organization; this flow should include customers, suppliers
and all parties affecting the organisation (I had just planned
such a chart for the hotel where I dealt with Training and
Development, wrote it out in text, had an artist depict
it with cartoon characters on a big white chart, making
it educational but humorous - after all this was a hotel.
Maybe in a technical company humour is not allowed. I explained
it to the artist and we showed how each job position affected
the final product since the customer's / guest's first contact
with the operation and ending with the last contact.

Have them know
and see departments in operation: based on this drawing
I conducted the orientation and explained all functions
of the hotel, promising a personal tour of all the departments
we discussed, including back areas, where the Department
Heads received us personally and gave further insight on
their departments.

Allay their
fears and doubts: cover subjects which are usually never
mentioned in orientations, such as the difficulties new
employees or supervisors experience, about turnover figures,
about how people assimilate better after hanging out three
months, about how they can turn to you for any difficulties
they experience, be it regarding their rejection by existing
old-timers or other matters. Let them know they can always
turn to you for confidential advice (do not forget that
any new person has fears and doubts regarding being accepted,
succeeding or failing).

Encourage friendships
among new employees: try to create a team spirit among the
existing group of newcomers - by the end of the day or the
two days you will have created a group of employees at different
levels and from different departments who will cooperate
and enhance communications across the organisation.

Extend respect
to them as human beings: have lunch with them as a group
(I saw too many people who conduct orientations go to a
different lunch room and this is very insulting).

Enable first
hand contact with upper management: have different Executives
come to welcome the group and assure them of management's
commitment to help them succeed. Introduce each of the newcomers,
dwell on their position, career background and personal
interests.

Assure them
that the organisation welcomes their observations, comments,
and critiques.

Last but not
least, share company goals with them. Discuss it with them.
Ask what their own personal and career goals are and try
to (right there and then) mesh their own goals with the
company goals.

This strategy (action
plan) has proven to be highly successful. It cuts down on turnover
drastically, engenders trust, cooperation and motivation.

Note:CHIC Hospitality will be happy
to help you create an effective new employee orientation program,
customized to your specific company's needs, whichever industry
you happen to be in.

Also Note: It is of extreme importance
to have effective,
action-and- results-orientedJob
Descriptions
and Employee
Handbook
before embarking on other projects. We, at CHIC Hospitality, specialize in this for
a diversified range of industries, and can work on such a project
with you "on site" and/or through "distance consulting".

Submit your enquiry and request through
our contact form. Please fill
in all the fields including company URL, address, your official
title and e-mail address at the company. Thank you.

We now (2004) receive so much spam, deleting by the hundreds
every 10 minutes, that the surest contact to us is through the contact form.

Thank you
for visiting. We hope you will find value in the free reading
we offer on our site.

Read our Terms and Conditions Claire Belilos,
CHIC Hospitality Consulting Services, Home Page: http://www.easytraining.com, specializes in Hospitality,
human resources strategies, organizational training and development,
Customer Service and problem-solving. She offers "on site",
online and distance consulting and coaching. She creates
job, training and evaluation tools, and custom-tailored solutions
to people management problems. She created a unique Customer
Service Viewpoints forum; list yourself to be advised
of its new location at http://www.easytraining.com/csforumlisting.htm